Computer devices, in particular handheld mobile communications devices, typically contain personal, corporate, or other secure information of the user. Such computer devices allow a user to store and manipulate such information as needed. If the computer device acts as a communications device, such devices would allow a user to be in contact through a communications network, for example the Internet, through various applications such as email and web browsing.
In some instances, an unscrupulous or other unauthorized individual may come to access the device, for example when the device is lost or unattended by the intended user. If the device is a handheld device, it may be readily lost or stolen, and the secure information stored therein may be immediately accessible. If the device is a communications device, information remotely accessible from the device may also be accessed, for example corporate information contained on a corporate server.
One means of addressing this difficulty is to apply a security password to the device. Only users who enter the correct security password into the device would have access to the device. A difficulty with this is that the security password would have to be activated by the user, for example by turning on the security password feature or by some triggering event, for example by holstering of a handheld device. In some devices, the security password feature may also be activated after a predefined duration of inactivity of the device.
However, the above-described devices require active triggering events to be performed by the user or a passage of a predetermined duration of time. An unscrupulous or other individual may only require moments to access the secure information, possibly well before any of these security features are activated.